Bobby Mincer rolled into his pit stall at Knoxville Raceway after his heat race in Wednesday Night’s Knoxville Nationals qualifying event. Mincer had just finished third in a heat race that included the likes of Sheldon Haudenschild, Kasey Kahne, and 10-time Knoxville Nationals champion Donny Schatz. What that means was that Mincer would be racing in Wednesday Night’s A-Main.
Bobby Mincer thrilled with A-Main transfer as the underdog at Knoxville
When Mincer pulled into the pits, his son, Cole, was waiting impatiently for him to hop out of the car. Cole couldn’t contain himself. He was jumping for joy after seeing his dad run so well at the famed track.
“That was amazing, dad! You made it,” he yelled.
For an underdog team like Mincer’s, a simple transfer from a heat race to the A-Main in a qualifying event is something they live for. Not to mention the great father-son moment that occurred afterwards.
“It was great just to see my son so happy,” Mincer said. “I was already happy. We are a way, way low-buck team [that’] just doing everything the best we can. To be able to run third in that heat with the people that were in it is amazing.”
Mincer has been racing in sprint cars for over 30 seasons. The thing that has kept him going has been his do-what-you-can attitude.
“We’ll just go out and run the best 25 laps we can, and when it’s done it’s done. It’ll still be great,” Mincer said.
However, Mincer didn’t have his eyes set on the A-Main on Wednesday. He didn’t even anticipate being in it.
“Honestly no,” Mincer said. “I knew we were behind on motor. We don’t have near enough motor to be doing what we’re doing with these guys. We make everything work the best we can, but knowing that these guys bring the best they have in for this deal, we just went out and did the best we could. I had no anticipation that I would be in the A-Main,” Mincer said.
Although, on Wednesday that didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that his team didn’t have the motor, or they had some luck with their starting position, because in their eyes, they made it.
Mincer said:“To put us right in the A-Main for our qualifying night, no matter what happens now, we made it. We made the A-Main.”
Mincer went on to finish 19th in the A-Main, and 29th in the Knoxville Nationals point standings. If he finds some more luck on his side, it wouldn’t be unbelievable to see Mincer race in the C-Main come Saturday.
